Mary Ellen Smith

She also raised money for war veterans, and helped establish factories to employ blind children.

Mary Ellen Smith helped her husband's political career by campaigning for him and making speeches on his behalf when he was unavailable.

This act provided divorced, deserted or widowed wives with guaranteed monthly income to raise children under the age of sixteen.

[6] Smith also supported anti-Asian and eugenicist politics in British Columbia, including the Women and Girls’ Protection Act of 1923, which restricted their employment by Asians.

[13][6] She accepted the racial science of her day that justified legislation efforts to "protect our own [Anglo-Canadian] race."

[6] She served as president of the BC Liberal Party in the early 1930s until her death due to a stroke in 1933 at the age of 72.

[6] Smith's work to promote the rights of women and girls has been commemorated in feminist literature and in the public after her death, but her links to eugenics and anti-Asian policies were largely downplayed until recent decades.

[17] In Nanaimo the street Mary Ellen Drive, located between Dover Bay Road and the Island Highway, is named in her honour.